


I promise I'm fine.

by ParkersPassport



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Domestic Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Protective Peter Parker, Sad with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22355836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParkersPassport/pseuds/ParkersPassport
Summary: On Wednesday afternoon MJ left Peters apartment with a smile and a kiss. On Thursday morning she arrived at school … different. Peter could tell she was different. “I’m fine!” MJ assured her rapidly concerned boyfriend, “I promise I’m fine”. Peter knew she was far from fine.
Relationships: Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 125





	1. she was smiling when she left

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Hope you like this but also please note the tags incase any are a TW! There will also be mild descriptions of injury throughout this story so keep that in mind. Anyway this is my first fic on here so like don't crucify me and I hope you enjoy the story :).

"You aren’t even watching it." Peter laughed as he looked down to MJ. The two were wrapped under a blanket on the grey couch in the Parkers apartment. Peter had his back against the head of the couch with both arms wrapped around MJ, who was lying on top of Peter, her chest pressing against his stomach and head underneath his chin. Some of her unruly hair had managed to snake itself upwards, sticking to the side of Peters face. Her left arm was wrapped around the back of his neck while her right hand was hiding underneath his Luke Skywalker t-shirt. Their respectable left and right legs were entangled around each other, leaving the only available limb for each being the other leg which were rested against each other. If May were to walk in right now, by some miracle circumstance that she got let off three hours early, and laid eyes on the pair on the couch she would think they were in quite the uncomfortable tangle. However, they weren’t uncomfortable, for them they were perfectly placed right next to each other.

“Hmm?” MJ mumbled, her head not moving from her position on Peters chest. Peter smiled, if the roles were reversed, she might have rolled her eyes, but Peter just smiled.

“I said you aren’t even watching it.” He gestured towards the T.V in front of them which was playing a documentary about cold cases. “You literally chose today to come over because you wanted to watch it with me”.

MJ tilted her head up so that she locked eyes with Peter. “Maybe I just wanted an excuse to hang out with my boyfriend”.

_My boyfriend._ Peter’s mind still did a 180 whenever he heard those words from her. I mean she had been saying it for almost three months now, but it still didn’t seem real to him. He had been picturing those words and her face for much longer than he would like to admit but now that it was actually happening, he still couldn’t seem to process it.

“… And I am so watching it.” MJ retorted.

Peter raised an eyebrow “oh yeah? Tell me right now what case they are talking about.” MJ hesitated.

“Go! No thinking! Now!” Peter quick fired so that she didn’t cheat and listen to the documentary narrator. “Black Dahlia!” MJ blurted out.

“Eh! Wrong! That was the _last_ one they were talking about. I knew you weren’t listening.”

MJ scowled but only for a second before a smile crept across her face. “Fine, you got me.”

“You just said your favourite murder what a cop out.” Peter teased.

“Hey!” MJ exclaimed in protest. She would usually give him a small punch in this kind of situation but as mentioned before her hands were kinda stuck. “That’s not fair it was worth a shot”.

Peter let out another small smile. “You know it’s not normal to have a favourite murder, right?” Peter said in a tone of fake cynic.

MJ made a small exhale of a laugh and moved the hand that was attached to the arm around his neck so that it was running through his wavy hair. “You know that’s not the only reason I like that flower.” MJ mumbled into Peters chest. He smiled again; he does that a lot when he’s with her, smile. MJ slid her right hand out from underneath Peters shirt and manoeuvred the chain that was around her neck so that the glass flower was free from behind her shirt.

Peter looked at it, “I’m so-“

“Nope” MJ interrupted “don’t!”

“-orry it’s broken.”

“What did I _just_ say!” MJ exclaimed.

“Sorry.”

“Peter I swear if you don’t stop saying sorry.”

“Okay … sorry.”

“That’s it!” Suddenly MJ untangled herself from Peter and shot up quick enough that the blanket rolled off her back onto the floor. She was kneeling on the couch now, her legs straddled on either side of Peters waist. Her hands were on either side of his face just above his shoulders so that their noses were barely millimeters from each other.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked with a grin.

MJ cocked her head and didn’t grin back “stop saying sorry".

Peter gave a pout “what if I don’t?”. They were so close the breath from the words caused MJs hair to move.

“Well then I’ll so something about it".

Peter grinned and MJ raised her eyebrows in a ‘don’t’ gesture but he continued anyway “sor-“. The word never got to completely escape because suddenly MJs lips were against his, forcing the apology back in. She let go and opened her eyes to Peters dopy smile. “You know,” he said, “if you are going to give me a kiss every time I apologies I might just start doing it more often.”

MJ laughed. “Don’t you dare” she warned as she closed the gap between their lips once again.

\----

MJ slid her shoes back onto her feet and hoisted her backpack over her shoulders as she stood in the doorway of the apartment entrance. “See you tomorrow then.” She gave him a kiss before turning around.

“MJ wait.” Peter called and Michelle swivelled back around to face him again.

“What? You okay?”.

Peter placed his left hand on the side of her face and kissed her, only briefly, but it didn’t matter because every kiss with her was worth every second. “Now I am.” He said as he pulled away.

MJ smiled and tucked a loose hair behind her ear “see you tomorrow spider-man". She said it in a low enough voice so that no one would hear but Peter wasn’t worried anyway, the only people who lived here are all old enough that they would be asleep by now. Then MJ turned away again and walked down the hall with a smile that Peter would never get tired of.

\---

The next morning Peter gave May a kiss on the check and snagged a banana from the fruit bowl before closing the apartment door behind him and making the usual journey to school, his earphones blasting ‘Kill the Director’ by The Wombats. He entered the school hallway and looked up to find MJ at her locker which was … odd. He checked his watch for the time to make sure he was right, he was, MJ was here a half hour earlier than she usually is. MJ never arrives late but she never arrives early either, she was here before Peter even arrived so who knows how long she had been leaning against her locker reading whatever book she was reading this week. Peter walked up to her missing his locker entirely on purpose because he wanted to know what was up with MJ before he put his bag inside his locker.

“Hey.”, he said as he slid up next to her, “you’re here unusually early”.

MJ jumped slightly at his approach, too engrossed in her book that she didn’t notice him. “Uh. Yeah, I … I had to have a meeting with a teacher.”

Peter squinted his eyes because she didn’t say that entirely confidently. “What about?", he asked.

“I … I just had to go over some homework I didn’t understand". She stumbled the words again and Peter knew she was lying.

“What homework? You are the smartest person I know!".

MJ tucked a lose strand of hair behind her ear. “Don’t worry about it it’s fine. C’mon let’s put your stuff away".

MJ slid her hand down Peter’s arm and interlaced her fingers in-between his. It was something they usually did, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary, but Peter still held a look of concern because the pressure she was holding his hand at was off. It was something most people wouldn’t notice because most people didn’t have hypersensitive senses, but Peter did. Peter did and he noticed it and he knew it was off. She was holding onto him slightly tighter than she usually did. MJ wasn’t just holding onto his hand because she could, this time she was holding on like she needed it, needed to feel him and his fingers next to hers and his soft pulse against her palm. Peter could feel her relax too, feel her anxiety slightly soften and her breath become less strained when their hands locked onto each other.

Something had definitely happened to MJ since she left his apartment last night. 

Peter turned to face her and looked into her eyes, his own swimming with concern. "Hey.", he muttered, "you know you can tell me if anything is wrong, right?". 

MJ bit her lip subconsciously and looked back at Peter. "I know." 

"Okay then what's up, because something is definitely wrong so don't try and deny it." 

MJ scowled "I miss when you were able to see through my lies more easily." 

"MJ..." 

She grabbed her free hand in Peters so that now both were locked onto each other. "Peter", she said in a small tone of desperation. "I'm fine. I promise I'm fine okay?" 

Peter opened his mouth about to say something in protest because he of all people would know that she was absolutely _not_ fine.

MJ let out an exasperated sigh, "Peter. Drop it". She said it in a tone that made Peter stop whatever he was going to say. It was a command of sorts, a hard line that wasn't up for debate, but behind the harshness of the tone there was a subtle hint of a plea, a desperate request for him to let the topic go. 

"Okay.", Peter said softly, "yeah okay, I'll stop." 

"Thank you".

"Sorry". 

"What did I tell you about apologising"? 

Peter didn't respond and his face was still clouded with worry. MJ bit her lip again "come on", she said as she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "let's go to class. We have English first." She started walking towards Peters locker, her hand still in his. She looked over at him and returned her usual, happier tone in an attempt to make that furrowed brow and cloud of concern wipe away from her boyfriend’s face. "We have that in class essay coming up soon next week so I can help you out in class again to help you prepare for it." English was Peters worst subject and one of MJs best, so she often helped him study in class, the favour was returned in chemistry, being one of Peters best and MJs worst. 

"Yeah, okay." Peter responded, his worry not submerging in the slightest. 

\--- 

At 2:45 the bell rang, and the swarm of students rushed out of the hallways in desperation to leave as soon as they could. Peter was trying to contain his hands that were jittering in impatience as he walked over to his locker, because the end of the school day always meant the same thing, spider-man time. He grabbed the books he needed for the night, slammed the door shut and locked it. Before he left however and found some dodgy alleyway to get changed in, he looked down the hall to see if he could spot MJ. His eyes landed on her and he jogged down to her.

"Hey", he said as he approached.

"Hey", MJ smiled. "Off to save the world again?" 

Peter snorted. "It's 3pm in Queens MJ. I don't think anything I'll be doing is going to be of world saving level." 

MJ rolled her eyes, "you are too harsh on yourself", she muttered as she leaned in and gave him a kiss, "what you do is incredible okay?" 

Peter smiled, "whatever you say. You're just going straight home?". He asked as he was still somewhat concerned about the mood MJ had been in at the start of the day. 

"Yeah, and I don't want to open the news to see that you have done anything stupid." 

Peter rolled his eyes. "Haha. Okay well I better be off. Say hi to Mis Jones for me. Love you." 

MJ smiled "love you too". 

\--- 

Peter crawled through his window at 12:30 am. He was hoping to avoid May but she was standing against his doorway with her arms crossed. 

"Peter." She said, and not in a friendly tone. 

"Yeah I know it's after curfew I'm sorry." 

"You can't keep doing this." 

"I know, I know, I'm sorry May. It's just I spent a-lot of last night with MJ so I didn't stay out as spider-man much and I felt like I should make up for it." 

May uncrossed her arms and walked over to her nephew. "What about homework? You need to leave time for that, and sleep!" 

Peter took his mask off. "Okay I know. Sorry." 

May scowled but only for a moment before letting out a sigh and ruffling his hair. "You are going to give me a heart attack one day Peter I swear to god." 

Peter laughed. "Goodnight, love you."

"Love you too spider-man." May then left, shutting the bedroom door behind her. 

After having a shower Peter collapsed himself on his bed and pulled out his phone. He opened snapchat and clicked on the first story that came up which so happened to be Bettys. It was a shot of her and her friends in the library, the caption read 'study group'. Peter was about to click on the screen to go to the next story, but he stopped when he noticed someone in the background of the image. It was MJ. Peter sat up and looked at the time the story was posted. '6 hours ago'. 6:30pm. The library closed at seven. Worry came over Peter's face again as he recalled their last conversation, in which MJ definitely told him she was going straight home. 

Why was she staying at school till seven pm, and why was she lying to Peter about it?


	2. please talk to me

Peter woke up from his minimal amount of sleep with the ringing sound of his alarm. He scrambled out of bed still half asleep and turned it off before standing up and shoving open his closet door. There was only one thing on his mind, the same thing that had been on his mind all of last night and kept him up till his body finally gave in to sleep at five am. That thing, well person, was MJ. Peter was worried, more worried then he wanted to admit because it was probably nothing. He was probably being overprotective and hyper anxious as usual. Like when May gets home an hour later than she was meant to because they kept her on at work, but she was unable to text him about it. Or when Ned forgets to tell him when he is skipping school because he just has a cold. When he visits Morgan and she trips over only to be perfectly fine.

He wished he would stop himself, stop himself spiralling into the worst possible outcomes. _What if she got jumped or something last night when she was walking home? What if something happened when she walked out of the apartment the other night and I was totally oblivious? What if there was something I could have done, and I didn’t, what if I could have stopped it, whatever it was, what if… STOP IT!_ Peter shook his head and pulled his pants over his boxers, shoving his feet into his worn-down sneakers maybe slightly more aggressive than usual, grabbed his backpack and walked outside of his room.

May was at the kitchen bench when Peter walked outside. “Hey sweetie, how did you sleep?”, she said with a slight raise of the eyebrow, a referral to lasts nights midnight conversation.

“Uh yeah fine, um I actually need to get to school earlier today for … a decathlon meeting so see you tonight!” Peter was practically half jogging to the door.

“Wait you need something to eat.”

“I’ll just get something at school!”

“Peter!” May called out but was too late as Peter had already shut the door behind him and was walking down the stairs and outside.

Peter was walking, rather quickly, to school, his mind still racing. _It’s probably fine. You are just overreacting again. You know she doesn’t have to tell you everything, she has a right to not tell you things._ Only this time felt different to Peter. MJ used to be secretive, like, super secretive. Even when her, Ned and himself started to get closer in friends after homecoming she still hid most of herself away.

Then Europe happened and _they_ happened and after a while she started to open up to Peter. She told him about herself, how there was only her mum because her dad walked out on them when she was seven. How she secretly loves romance movies even though she will still deny it if someone asks her. How she’s claustrophobic and one of her biggest fears is being trapped. She told him all of these things and he told her everything about himself in return. How he still gets nightmares about Tony dying. How he is scared of the dark, something he wasn’t scared of before. How it took him two months to be able to step back into the iron spider suit without having a panic attack. They told each other everything, and they certainly told each other things that were bothering them.

_So why is she hiding something from me now? Fuck is it something I did, but she was fine when she left the other day._ Twenty minutes later, his thoughts still clouded, he arrived at school and walked inside. _Mj, Mj, Mj, Mj._ He looked up to her locker, nothing. The hallway was completely Mj free. Peter relaxed the tension he didn’t even realise he was holding. _Jesus Christ Peter you got yourself worked up over nothing, she’s not even here. Probably just had a bad day or something…_

\----

Peter sat down at the back of the classroom; school didn’t actually start for another 25 minutes but because of his panic to check on Mj he arrived earlier. Ten minutes later the classroom door opened, and Peter looked up as Ned walked in and plonked down next to him. He looked at Peter and scowled “How late were you out last night?”

“Only till 12:30.”

“Just cause you look… tireder than usual”

Peter shuffled a bit in his seat. “Yeah well I didn’t actually fall asleep till a bit later.”

Ned looked at him with concern.

Peter sighed. “I’m sorry it was stupid. I was just … worried about MJ. She was acting weird yesterday and I just got paranoid. I was overreacting though I’m sure she is fine.”

Ned smiled and Peter looked at him.

“What the hell are you smiling at?” Peter laughed.

Ned didn’t respond.

“Oh my god what!” Peter hit Ned’s arm.

“Ow!”

Peter looked with exasperation at Ned.

“You just really care about her. Don’t you?” Ned smiled.

Peter shuffled in his chair again. “I mean… yeah. I know she can take care of herself, a lot more than anyone else can. I don’t know I just can’t help it.”

Ned looked like he was about to say something in return but as if on que MJ walked into the classroom. “What’s up dorks”, she walked over the seat on the other side of Peter, “Hey idiot”.

Peter crossed his arms. “You know most people in a relationship greet each other with babe or something.”

MJ smiled. “Since when have we been most people?”

“You guys are disgustingly cute.” Ned said from the other end of the table.

MJ chucked a pencil at him “That is so rude!”

“Hey, it was a compliment!”

Peter laughed and held his arms out between them “okay, okay both you calm down.”

\---

Peter observed MJ a lot more closely throughout the rest of the day but after third period his worries quelled. She seemed a lot better than yesterday, it still didn’t explain why she lied to him though and Peter was nervous about bringing the topic up. He wanted to ask her still, more so he can assure himself it wasn’t anything he did wrong. _What if it was my fault?_

At lunch was when he decided to ask her. He pulled her aside before Ned met up with them. “Hey uh, can I ask you something? It’s kinda stupid and you don’t have to tell me cause like I don’t need to know everything about your life I don’t control you or anything obviously and you can just tell me to back off if you wa-“

“Peter!”, Mj interrupted his rambling, “just spit it out.”

“Okay”, he took a breath, “Mj why did you lie to me yesterday?”

She didn’t say anything.

“You said you were going straight home, but I saw you were in the library on Bettys story at like 6:30pm.”

Still silence.

“Mj I … if I did anything wrong just te-“

“No! No god Peter you didn’t do anything. You have actually been, amazing … but no it, it’s something else. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I just didn’t want you worrying.”

“Well I am worried Mj! Something clearly happened.”

“Yeah okay I’m not going to keep lying to you. Something did happen, and it’s not exactly … resolved yet, but I didn’t tell you and I still don’t think I’m ready to tell you because you are going to go into one of your, things.”

“What do you mean one of my ‘things’?”

She sighed “God okay I love you, right, and nothing is going change that anytime soon.”

“…right.”

“It’s just that sometimes… when people you care about are in certain situations … you kinda get overprotective. It’s not a _bad_ thing it’s actually really admirable of you but it’s just that … you have this mindset that you have to fix things. That somehow, it’s your responsibility to help or to solve the problem when in reality you can’t do anything, and then you beat yourself up over these things that aren’t even your fault. I guess I’m just not telling you because I don’t want you to try and solve this, because you can’t do anything, and it’s my problem.”

Peter was silent for a couple of moments before he spoke again. “… But what if I can do something? To help. Or at least be there for you.”

Mj reached out and put her hands in Peters. “You _are_ being here for me. You are here, with me, right now and that’s all I am asking for.”

Peter bit his lip. “You are doing one of _your_ things right now.”

Mj raised her eyebrow.

“You are bottling everything up and struggling with all this _whatever_ by yourself because you don’t like opening up to people, thinking it makes you weak or that you will be an inconvenience or something when you _aren’t._ Please, just talk to me.”

“… I’m fine Peter.”

“No, you’re not!”

Mj removed her hands from their hold and her tone turned to aggression. “Peter, I asked you to drop it, so drop it.”

“But if something is happening-”

“Christ Peter! Just back off I can handle myself! … I’m going to sit with Betty don’t follow me.” With this MJ stormed off down the hall.

Peter fell against the wall and purposely hit the back of his head slightly on the surface. _Way to fucking go Peter._

“Uh... what just happened?” It was Ned, who had seen the last of their conversation on his way to meet up with them. Peter groaned and put his head in his hands for a brief second before coming off the wall “I fucked up is what happened. Like I usually do.”

“Should we go up to her-”

“No! I can assure you that the last person she wants to see right now is me. Let’s just go sit down.”

\---

Peter was sitting on his desk. It was 11:30pm and he had tried to start his homework about seven times now. However, he only ever got two sentences in before his mind started going to his and Mjs last conversation and his spiralling thoughts started up again. _Why do you have to fuck up everything you stupid fucking ugh!_ He grabbed the pencil on his desk and threw it at the wall, in his heightened state of emotion Peter lost control of his strength and the pencil fell to the floor snapped in half, leaving a small dent in the wall. _Great._

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and went into his favourite’s contacts, he pulled up Mj and hovered his finger over the call button. “No”, he mumbled out loud. _Calling is bad, she doesn’t want to interact with you right now. Text her instead._ He clicked message and started typing out and deleting about three different messages before he let out another sigh and closed the phone, not finding the right words to send. He chucked the device on his bed and put his head in his arms on the desk for thirty seconds before he sat up again and looked, once again, at the phone on his bed. He pushed out from his desk and grabbed the phone still standing up. He clicked on the text icon again and typed out another attempt at a message. His finger hovered over the send button, _screw it_ , he clicked send.

The message was only two words but Peter felt like Mj wanted to listen to his ramblings as little as possible, so he kept it short, and if he was being honest, he wasn’t sure if he was able to properly type out all the mess that was in his head.

“I’m sorry” Is all that it said.

Peter let out a sigh and sat back down on his desk, he wasn’t expecting a reply anytime soon so he may as well attempt _some_ homework. Yet once again only two sentences were able to be written out before he stopped. This time not because of his wondering thoughts, no, this time he stopped because his doorbell just rang.

_Who the hell?_ It wasn’t May because she has a key to the apartment so wouldn’t need to ring the doorbell, and even if she left her keys here, she didn’t get off work for another half hour. His spidey sense wasn’t sending him any warnings of danger but just in case he slipped on his webshooters.

He walked over and opened the door “Hello- Mj?”

In front of the door was, in fact, MJ. She was in a red, maroon hoodie with the hood over her head, but even with the shadow of it covering some of her face Peter could tell she had been crying, recently.

“Are you okay oh my god what happened is-”

He was cut off by MJ’s arms around his back as she fell into his chest in a bear gripping hug, her head buried into the crook of his neck. As soon as she came in contact with him, the moment she felt his shirt in her hands she couldn’t help it, she started crying. Peter felt her body shaking with sobs against himself. He instantly completed the embrace and held her as she refused to let go. “Mj what happened please-”

He was cut of by Mj’s weak voice “I’ll tell you in a moment. Just, I just need you to hold me right now.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay I can do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw the upload schedule for this will not be consistent but I hope you are enjoying it so far :) Also who picked up on my Euphoria reference hehe


	3. i'm right next to you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is where the important tags start coming in so please keep note! There is also quite a bit of description of alcoholism and a mild description of injury.

“Okay so here is a towel and I also just got you one of my shirts you can sleep in for tonight.” Peter placed the items in Mjs hands and looked back up at her. His face was calm, but Mj knew that he was just trying to not to show his worry, she knew because she could still see his eyes wondering around her face and feel his hands linger on hers longer than was necessary. She attempted a small smile, for his sake, “thanks.”

Peter looked up at her again “you good?” he asked. He asked the question more so in asking if she was better than asking if she was fine, because it was stupid to ask if she was fine.

Mj tightened her grip on the two items “yeah, I won’t be long, I just need to-”, she faltered, not exactly sure what she was even going to say.

“It’s okay don’t worry.” He said in a soft voice, “take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

Mj nodded and, with the towel and shirt in hand, walked into the Parkers bathroom, shut the door and turned on the shower head. The sound of the water coming to life gave her an unexpected jump, unprepared for the sudden rise of volume around her. She took off her clothes and placed them in a somewhat neat pile on the counter. She looked up and suddenly stopped as she caught herself in the mirror, _christ I look awful_. Her nose and the areas around her eyes were red from crying and her hair had pretty much all fallen out of her hair-tie, how she didn’t even know. The main thing though was the fact she just looked exhausted. She looked drained and tired, and it honestly frightened Mj. It was like she didn’t even recognise her own face, as if she was looking at someone’s half assed attempt at imitating her.

Mj shook her head and moved away from the mirror to the shower and extended her hand so that she could feel the temperature of the water, however she froze a bit when she saw her arm, her fucking arm. Mj wasn’t used to it looking like that and it still gave her a little shock. _How the fuck am I meant to hide that from Peter?_

She didn’t take long in the shower, which came as a surprise to her because she thought she would have sat on those tiles forever. She guessed it was because she had already cried her fucking eyes out to Peter no more than twenty minutes ago, so her body was simply drained and just wanted to rest. She also realised it was because she didn’t want to be alone anymore, even though Peter was simply in the room next door she just needed to hold on to him.

Seven months ago, before Europe, Mj would have kicked herself for thinking that. For letting herself be reliant on someone, letting herself be an open book for someone to read, exposing herself to them, vulnerable to them. She didn’t like doing that, being vulnerable, being emotional. So, she shut out everyone, her friends her family … but then Peter Parker came along and Mj, for once in her life, didn’t feel like she needed to hide anymore. Fuck she tried, she tried to not bring this one good thing in her life into her absolute mess for her to only lose him in the process.

But then he called her at three am one night, panicking about a nightmare. 

‘… _Shit I’m -, Mj sorry I should not have called you I’m really, fuck sorry I know it’s like three am I just didn’t know who else to call … ‘_

_‘Peter it’s okay! Just try and breathe.’_

_‘It was so dark … and I saw him.’_

_‘Peter-‘_

_‘I couldn’t do anything … it’s my fault, it’s all my fault.’_

_‘Peter it’s okay, just listen to my voice okay? I’m right here. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.’_

Things changed after that three am phone call. He told her everything and she told him everything. _Everything_ …

Mj cursed herself and sighed, because he was right, he was fucking right. She wasn’t telling him about what was happening because she didn’t want to feel like a burden, lug her messed up issues onto him, hurt him with concern and worry. However, in her stupid efforts to keep him away, to push his worries at bay, what she didn’t want to happen is exactly what did happen. He was hurting, his stupid bloody heroes mindset had got in the way, like it usually does, and he was worried about her. Mj also realised, as she internally punched herself for letting it happen, that he was thinking that he did something, that he did something to upset her. She almost wanted to laugh at the idea that was so far from the truth, as much as Mj liked to tease he hardly did anything wrong, especially when it came to her, when it came to being there for her.

\--

Mj stood there, her hair still dripping, in front of the bathroom mirror. She had put on Peters shirt which, in retrospect, wasn’t actually that long on her because of how tall she was. This caused her to let out a small breath of a laugh before she faulted as she once again looked down at her arm. _Shit_. To fix the issue she grabbed her red hoodie again, put it on and let out a breath before opening the bathroom door and making her way to the living room where she left Peter.

She walked in to see that Peter had grabbed a blanket and pillow and placed them on the couch in the living room. Currently he was moving the coffee table at the end so that his feet didn’t hit it when he was on the coach.

“What are you doing?”

Peter looked up and saw Mj with her hands in the pocket of the hoodie she was still wearing for a reason he didn’t understand. “Oh, sorry I didn’t see you. I thought you were going to be longer.”

Mj looked back at the couch and loosely pointed “what are you doing?”

“Well I thought that you might need some space or something so I thought if you take my bed I can just sleep here.”

Mj almost started crying again. What on earth did she do to deserve Peter Parker. “You idiot.” She muttered before she finally walked over and pulled him into a hug. “Space is the last thing I want right now. I want you.”

“Oh … sorry” Peter mumbled.

“Stop apologising.”

“Sorry.”

“Peter.”

“Right.”

Peter slowly pulled out of the hug, his arms still holding Mj’s shoulders. “Why are you still wearing the hoodie? I was going to put your clothes in the wash. I can give you one of mine if you’re cold.”

“uh…”

“Mj?”

That look was back, the frightfully worried gaze in his eyes.

_Stop hiding things from him._

“Okay … I am going to take if off. Just, please don’t freak out okay?”

“Mj-”

“-please?”

“…okay”.

Mj removed herself from Peters hold so that she could effectively take the jumper off. She slipped it over her head and stopped before she took the rest off her arms. “Promise you won’t freak out?”.

“You aren’t exactly reassuring me … but yeah I promise.”

“Okay.” Finally, Mj pulled the rest of the hoodie off her, first she took out her left arm and lastly her right. Peter looked down and Mj saw several emotions cross over his face all at once, first horror, then concern and finally anger, because all along Mj's forearm were dark bruises. 

“Mj what - who the fuck did this to you!” Peter looked like he was ready to get into the spider-man suit right then and there, or maybe he was going to skip that step, it wouldn’t have surprised her if he just went out right now in his pyjamas once Mj gave him a name.

“Shh please, please you said you wouldn’t freak out.”

“How can I not freak out! This obviously wasn’t you just bumping into a table or something Mj someone did this to you!”

“Please Peter please just, just let me tell you what’s been going on.” She grabbed his hands. Partly to calm herself down and partly to stop him from doing anything stupid.

Peter didn’t want to wait, he wanted to find whoever did this and get to them right now. He had never felt so flooded with emotion as he did right now. How, _why_ would someone do this? He found he couldn’t look away from the sickening marks on her arm, on Mjs arm. His mind was racing, through several different states of emotion, none of them good. Despite what some of the public thought about spider-man, Peter wasn’t a violent person, he had never killed anyone as spider-man and he never wanted to, but looking at Mjs arm made him want to _hurt_ whoever did this. Then he looked up, he looked up at Mjs face and could see that it wasn’t going to be that easy. This wasn’t just some jerk at school pushing her down the stairs, no, this was more than that.

“Okay”, he whispered, “let’s sit down.”

\---

Relocating themselves to Peters bed, the two were sitting next to each other with their legs over the side. Peter was looking at Mj who’s head was turned away from him, her eyes nervously eyeing the floor.

Mj took in a shaky breath before she started speaking. “Um… okay so … he’s back.”

“Who-”

“-My mum’s boyfriend. _Brian_ ” She almost spat the name. Peter furrowed his brow, still not entirely sure what was going on but Mj took a sigh and continued. “She met him a few years ago. I didn’t get a good energy from him from the start, but mum seemed to be happy and that’s all that mattered to me so I just dealt with it.” She paused again. “He drank though … a lot and that would make him get … aggressive.” Peter shifted in his position a bit, the dots connecting. Mj kept going, her gaze not shifting from the spot on the floor. “Back then he didn’t do … um… anything _that_ bad in retrospect. He yelled and would sometimes throw things across the room but uh he didn’t …” Mj trailed off, a part of her still not wanting to finally say anything out loud. “He uh, also, tended to do all of that more at me then he did mum … I don’t know why, maybe he thought if he did it to me rather than mum, she would let him stay around for longer or something. Well, one day he threw a book at me when mum was there and she, finally, managed to kick him out.”

Peter looked at the wall in front of him, taking a moment to take in and process all of this new information. He didn’t know how he was feeling, the mixed emotions were back again, anger and alarm and anxiety all crawled inside him. Next to him he heard Mj take another, more shaky breath and turned to her as she started talking again, panic slowly building in her voice.

“That was um five years ago?”

Peter let out a small breath of shock “You were thirteen?!”

Mj simply nodded in response. “Well, now Brian um, he’s come back … and he’s so much worse. He lost his job, which is the reason he came back to us in the first place which is making him drink more and-” Mj’s breathing started to get more panicked and Peter heard her heart rate start slowly rising, he grabbed her hand which caused her to calm down, just slightly.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Peter whispered, “I’ve sort of put the pieces together.”

“No. No I want to tell you, I promised I wouldn’t hide things from you anymore.”

“Okay” Peter said softly.

Mj gave Peter’s hand a bit of a squeeze before she took a shaky breath. “He came back last week, but um, he first … hurt me on Tuesday. It wasn’t that bad, just a bit of a mark on my shoulder. That’s why I asked to stay with you specifically on Wednesday, so I could spend the least amount of time in the same house as him. But I came home, and it was already worse than when I left. He started throwing more things and mum just stood there and I didn’t know what to do and I just…” Mj’s words were getting jumbled, anxiety taking her over. “That’s why I have been going to school early and leaving late, so I can spend the least amount of time there.” She took another shaky breath. “I. I was, fuck I was so stupid. When I came home, today, I – I don’t know, maybe it was because I was already in a high state of emotion because of what happened with us or because I was just sick of it but, I yelled at him. I told him he should leave and … and that’s when he uh-” She couldn’t finish her sentence but held up her arm to illustrate what she was trying to say. Mj felt tears start spiking her eyes again but Peter quickly pulled her in to a hug and she buried her head in his shoulder.

“Shit I’m sorry Mj” He mumbled into her shirt.

“It’s not your fault”

“… I know”, Peter whispered, “we are going to do something about it though.”

“…what can I possibly do?”

Peter paused for a moment to think before he tightened his hold on Mj. “I don’t know yet. But that’s an issue for tomorrow, right now you need to sleep.”

Mj pulled out of the hug and wiped her eyes. “Okay. You sure May will be fine with me staying the night?”

“May will understand don’t worry, and even if she would say no I would make you stay anyway.”

Mj smiled “okay … thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I’m just doing what anyone else would.”

Mj let out a small laugh. “See that’s where you are wrong, but that’s why I love you.”

\---

Peter fell asleep to the sound of Mj’s heartbeat beating calmly against his chest. When he first got his powers that was one of the things that stressed him out the most, the sound of everyone’s heartbeats and body movements overwhelming him. He taught himself to block them all out but there were still a few he purposely tuned into. He let himself hear Tony’s, which ended up being a mistake, but he also kept May’s, Ned’s and Mj’s. For the first time in a while, Mj’s heartbeat was calm, and soon he drifted off to its rhythm.

\--

May Parker walked into her nephews’ room at 1am from work to see not one, but two bodies taking up the space on his twin bed. Mj, in a t-shirt May recognised as one of Peters, was cuddled into the side of his body, her head on his chest. Peter was almost half off the bed in order to make room for her, his foot on the floor. Their hands were laying loosely next to each other, indicating to May that they were holding hands before they both fell asleep.

She should have been mad at Peter for letting his girlfriend stay the night without asking but looking at the pair she couldn’t help but let out a small smile. Besides, it wasn’t like Peter to not tell her these things, so she knew something, whatever it was, happened and she decided to let the teenagers stay in their sleep. So they slept, both of them getting the first dreamless sleep either had had in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so sorry for the delay in chapter upload by the way. I have started up school again so the uploads will most likely be more drawn out. I also hope this chapter was fine, I kinda was not as confident with my writing in this but yeah so :)


	4. happy place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Sorry for the two month delay, I had school. This chapter is heaps longer though so hopefully that should make up for it :).

Peter woke up as usual to the sound of his alarm, he groggily stuck his arm out from the entanglement of blankets and pressed the off button without bothering to open his eyes. He felt like he was forgetting something though and he sat up in his bed in confusion. He grabbed his phone just to double check that it was in fact Saturday and the thing he was forgetting wasn’t school. His phone opened to the last thing he was on which was messages and his text to Mj last night. _Mj!_

Instantly Peter shot out of bed, because Mj certainly wasn’t here anymore and he distinctly remembers her falling asleep next to him. _Did she leave while I was sleeping? Did I do something wrong again, fuck. No. She wouldn’t have left. Okay you know what she is probably just in the bathroom and you are freaking out over nothing. But what if…_

“Hey, May, have you seen-”, Peter said rushing into the kitchen before stopping his sentence halfway, “Mj?”

Both Mj and May were behind the kitchen counter, which had turned into a bombsite of flour, eggs and sugar. Mj was hallway through grabbing something out of the fridge, she had an apron on which Peter recognised as the one May always wore and got confirmation as he looked over to May in front of the frypan. She was still in her pyjamas that were now covered in flour due to the lack of apron, Peter also noticed that some of the batter had managed to sick to her hair.

Mj laughed, “everything okay?”

“Uh yeah sorry I just-”

“Thought I left?”

“…no.” Peter obviously lied.

Mj smirked and walked over to Peter. “God I can’t even make my boyfriend pancakes without him worrying about me.” Peter tried to respond but in his embarrassment found he couldn’t properly form a sentence and got cut off by Mj kissing him on the cheek “good morning you idiot”.

Peter smiled and mumbled a sheepish “morning” back before walking over to the bench.

“Morning May. Uh so what are we making exactly.”

“Strawberry pancakes, and they should almost be done.” There is a slight pause as May turns around from the stove to face Peter, she crosses her arms and Peter senses a shift that makes him nervous. “Peter you know I trust you, but you can imagine my reaction when I came home to find you had let your girlfriend stay over for the night without asking me.”

Peter looked down at his hands. Texting May last night had come across his mind but only briefly, he was too caught up in trying to help Mj he completely forgot about it, and now he felt awful. “May sorry I uh-”

A small sigh erupted from May and she dropped her stern gaze. “It’s okay. I know there was some reason or another, just tell me next time okay?”

“Yeah okay, sorry.”

She moved around the bench and ruffled her nephew’s hair, “and I trust you didn’t get up to anything.” She raised an eyebrow at Peter, he knew exactly what she was talking about and felt his face go red.

“May!”

She let out another laugh “oh I’m only teasing, go on eat your pancakes.” She slid the plate over to him as Mj took the stool on his left side.

“Idiot.”, she mumbled with a smile.

Peter looked at her and opened his hand in a gesture of exasperation, “what!”.

“Nothing. You’re just an idiot.”

Peter gave Mj a mock scowl “rude.”

Mj rolled her eyes before stabbing her pancake with her fork.

“You look cute in that apron by the way.” Peter mumbled with his mouth half full.

Mj raised an eyebrow at him “it’s an _apron_ Peter.”

“I know.”

“I really only have to do the bare minimum to impress you don’t I?”

Peter smiled, “I would take that as a compliment.”

Mj rolled her eyes again and Peter swore he heard another mumble of ‘idiot’, but she was smiling when she took another bite of the pancake.

May walked behind Peter and gave him a kiss on the top of his head “alright well I need to freshen up and then head off to work but I’ll see you later tonight.” She then turned to Mj. “I don’t know what exactly is going on, and I won’t press you to tell me everything, but you’re welcome to stay here if you need.”

Mj tucked her hair behind her ear “No of course, thank you May, really. Sorry we didn’t tell you, but it wasn’t Peters fault I kinda just, showed up…” May let out a soft smile and muttered “it’s okay Mj” before turning and finally making her way out of the kitchen.

The two sat in silence eating their pancakes for a while before Peter put his fork down and turned to Mj. “So, do you think you’ll stay?”, he said it in a soft and reassuring way that said, _‘no pressure’_ , but Mj still moved her gaze away, focusing on her hands.

“Um, if that’s okay… I would like that. I don’t want to give you and May any trouble though.”

“We are more than happy to help you. What kind of shitty boyfriend would I be if I didn’t?”

Mj smiled behind her food before Peter turned to her again, his tone shifted. “It doesn’t have to be right now. It doesn’t have to be for a while …. but we will have to do something about him eventually. You shouldn’t be scared to go into your own house.”

Mj sighed and spoke back in a whisper, looking down at her plate. “Yeah, yeah I know. I just, can’t do it now. Shit sorry, I know this is so stupid. I mean he has only been here for a fucking week I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t be breaking down this fucking early. I shouldn’t be bothering you or May or - ”. Her hands had started shaking and she heard the scrape of the chair next to her as Peter instantly came over to her side, placing his own hand on top of her shaky ones.

“Hey, hey stop. Stop thinking that, you are not bothering me, or May, and you definitely shouldn’t be beating _yourself_ up over this. None of this is your fault and you did what was right for you.”

Mj didn’t say anything and kept her gaze away from Peter, still focusing on the empty plate.

“Mj, look at me”. With a breath of hesitation Mj turned around in the bench so that she was now facing Peter and he continued. “How many times have I called you at four in the fucking morning because I had a nightmare?” Mj started to protest but was cut off. “How many times have you had to shake me out of some goddamn spiral because of my stupid PTSD, like that time the power went out?”

“That’s not stupid! None of that was stupid!”

“So why should this be?” 

Mj opened her mouth, to only close it again after realising that he was right. _Of course he is fucking right._ This really isn’t any different. Except it _is_ different, because this time it’s her. This time it’s her who is the one being helped, it’s her who has to rely on other people.

Peter raised an eyebrow at Mj, knowing that he had her beat. With a groan Mj slumped slightly more into Peter, “it’s not”, she mumbled in defeat, “it’s not any different.”

“Let me look after you for a change. You have done it for me way too many times.”

Mj let out a laugh “I feel like the experiences you have gone through are much more worthy of needing to be looked after than mine.”

Peter scowled and lowered himself so that he was eye-level with Mj on the stool, causing her to shift away from her lean on his chest. “Don’t say that, ever.”

“Wha-”

“Everyone goes through different shit. Your problems aren’t any less important than mine or anyone else’s, okay?”

“…okay.” Mj mumbled in response, but there was a small smile that couldn’t help but push its way forward. _I really don’t deserve him._

“Besides,” Peter said, “if everyone had to match my level of traumatic experiences, I think the world might just tip itself on its head.”

Mj scowled but Peter just grinned.

“You should know humour is my coping mechanism by now.”

“Yeah well that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

There was a beat of silence before Peter looked at Mj again, his tone serious, “we’ll get through this okay?”. He said, and he gave Mj a smile. That small, reassuring smile that always manages to sneak itself past the barriers she spent so long building. That stupid fucking lopsided smile that makes everything else disappear except for him, if only for a moment.

“Okay.”

Peter straightened himself back, grabbed the plates and walked them over to the sink. He turned back around and scowled again as he looked at Mjs face. “What’s wrong?”

Mj sighed. “I’m going to have to call mum. I haven’t checked my phone since last night but no doubt she is wondering where I am.” She let out a groan before pushing herself off the bench grabbing her phone from Peters room and returning to the kitchen.

Mj looked down at the screen _‘3 missed calls’._

“Huh… thought it would have been more if I’m being honest.” She frowned for a moment before tapping the call back button and placing the phone to her ear.

She looked at Peter as the phone started ringing, and he gave her a small smile.

_“Michelle?”_

“Uh hi mum, look um I’m really sorry I left and didn’t come home last night. Uh, but I’m fine don’t worry.”

There was a sigh on the other end of the line _“I know you’re fine. May texted me.”_

“…oh.”

_“Sweetie… I know. Trust me, I know. I’m sorry this is happening, but you have to understand that I don’t like it just as much as you do.”_

Mj felt a small surge of anger pass over her, “then why did you let him come back!”

_“Michelle. I had no other choice.”_

“Yes, you did! You could have said no! It’s not that hard!”

_“… Michelle.”_

Mj looked down as if she was avoiding eye contact even though she was only speaking on the phone. “You’re right. I’m, I’m sorry …” There was a pause as she bit her lip and took in a breath before continuing. “Mum, mum is it okay if I stay at Peters for a bit?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. _“Is that what you want to do?”_

Mj paused for only a second before she glanced down at her arm. “Yes. I’m sorry mum but, I just don’t feel safe around him… but, but I also don’t want to leave you. I mean if me leaving means - ”

_“- I’ll be fine.”_

“Are you sure?”

_“Will you need to get some of your things?”_

“Yeah, yeah I guess I’ll have to.”

_“He’ll be gone around seven if you want to come over then to get everything.”_

“Where is he going to be at seven?”

_“He is meeting some friends at the pub.”_

“…. Right.”

_“I need to go to work now and unfortunately I’ll still be there at seven is that okay?”_

“yeah that’s fine.” Mj said in a low whisper before hanging up the phone and dropping it into her pocket.

She stood there for a few moments in silence, staring at the wall in front of her and processing the conversation before she realised her hands were slightly shaking again. _Why are my hands shaking? Stop shaking why –_ they stopped.

Stopped as she felt Peters hands suddenly interlace themselves with hers as his arms wrapped around her from behind. Her back now against his chest, she could feel his hair against her neck.

“Mj”, he said softly, his calm voice now right next to her, “it’s okay. Just try to focus.”

“I’m fine.” She tried to tell Peter, except her voice betrayed her, coming out as barely a whisper.

“I can hear your heart rate Mj.”

“I feel like that’s an invasion of privacy, somehow.” But her tone wasn’t angry, and she felt herself slowly relaxing. 

“Maybe, but I like listening to it.” 

“That sounds like something a serial killer would say.” She muttered, and felt a sharp exhale as Peter let out a laugh.

For a few moments neither said anything as they merely stood in silence in the comforting hold of each other. Still, Mj could feel her thoughts racing, she wasn’t able to identify any of them, all of it just being one, loud, jumbled mess on top of each other as more and more kept being added and –. Peters thumb pressed into her hand, _‘let go’_ it told her, let go. So, she did.

She closed her eyes and let herself go, let herself fall into the warmth of Peter Parker and let her only thoughts be Peter Parker. She wasn’t anywhere else, she wasn’t with anyone else, it was just her, her and Peter Parker. She found her hands gripping onto his slightly tighter as she pulled him closer. As she let herself fall, she realised she could feel the soft beat of his heart against her back and she understood what Peter meant. The rhythm of it, the presence of it she realised, was one of the most comforting feelings in the world, and she wanted to feel it forever.

She used to think it was weird that people had a ‘happy place’, because how could one’s anxiety suddenly disappear? All of the problems are still going to be there, nothing has changed, things still need to be solved. How is changing locations going to fix any of that? Until she suddenly did understand, except hers wasn’t a place, hers was a person. She still doesn’t understand it, doesn’t understand how her mind suddenly becomes calm and how her anxiety becomes dull. Doesn’t understand how on the days where the entire world seems to be screaming at her all he has to do is give her one of his stupid, lopsided grins and everything suddenly washes away. Except unlike everything else, she is fine with not understanding it, not understanding this feeling of serenity that Peter Parker gives her.

She felt like it was illegal, somehow, because surely this shouldn’t be allowed. Peter felt like a drug she was told she should never take because it would make her addicted. Something that made her feel this happy shouldn’t exist, or at least it shouldn’t exist solely to her. Yet here he was, her very own happy place of tranquillity. She knew it was selfish, to keep this person of a happy place to herself, but for once she allowed herself to be selfish, selfish without any guilt. Peter Parker, her very own happy place.

“Are you okay now?” Peter whispered, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah, yeah I don’t know what happened … why that happened.”

“It’s okay.”

“I know”. Mj said as she pulled herself out of the embrace so that she could turn around and face Peter, placing her arms around his neck. “Thank you”, and she pressed her lips against his before they both finally left each other’s hold.

“Why didn’t you tell her about your arm?” Peter asked, and Mj bit her lip.

“I don’t know, the words just couldn’t … form.”

Peter smiled another calming smile at her. “It’s okay, but you will need to tell her at some point.”

Mj sighed, “I know, but that’s an issue for later. Right now, I just want to distract myself.”

Peter grinned, “Well that is something I can easily do”. He looked over to his phone that was sitting on the bench which seemed to give him an idea as he turned back to Mj. “Do we want to get Ned over?”

Mj smiled, “please”.

\---

Ned arrived at the Parkers apartment with an armful of Legos and videogames. “Glad to know you haven’t fully third-wheeled me yet”, he said as he shut the door behind him.

Peter shoved his arm “don’t be stupid we’d never do that.”

Ned looked at Peter and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay maybe we’ve done it a few times”, Peter admitted sheepishly, “but you’re here now so don’t make me change my mind.”

Ned laughed and walked over to place the items on the coffee table in front of the couch where Mj was sitting, he let out another laugh. “God you guys are annoying.”

“What did we do!” Mj responded with some offence.

He pointed at Mj “those are literally all of Peters clothes”, he paused for a moment before realisation hit him, “did you sleep here?”

Neither of the pair said anything, and Ned burst out into another small fit of laughter. Mj gave him a fake scowl and threw a pillow at him “shut up!”

“Well glad to know your little fight got resolved.”

Mj opened her mouth in shock, “It was not a fight!”

Ned raised an eyebrow and smiled “Peter seemed to think it was. He was an absolute mess about how he did something wrong, weren’t you?”

Peter rolled his eyes, “Yeah okay well maybe I was being a bit overdramatic and read into it too much.”

“You! Reading into things too much? Never!”

Peter laughed, “shut up”. He walked over to the couch and jumped over it from behind to sit down, “nothing happened.”

Mj leaned over and grabbed a controller off the coffee table, “would both of you shut up and sit down so I can thrash you in smash brothers.”

\---

For the rest of the day the three had the most fun any of them had had in a while. Not a single thought of Brian or her mum entered Mjs head and she found herself smiling an awful lot, which is something that had almost seemed foreign to her in the past week.

Peter looked over at Mj, at Mj laughing, at her genuinely laughing, and he smiled himself. He wanted this moment to last forever, but it had to come to a stop at one point, and soon it reached six pm and Ned had to leave.

Ned was packing up the things he bought when Peter noticed Mj was looking down at her arm, still covered by his hoodie, he could see thoughts were jumbling around in her head before she took an intake of breath and bit her lip. “Ned I, I need to tell you something.”

Peter looked up at Mj and gave her a _‘are you sure?’_ look and Mj nodded in response. Ned crossed his arms “okay I can’t understand your weird couple language what is going on?”

Mj took in another shaky breath. “Um, so I feel like you have a right to know. The reason, the reason I’ve been acting … off lately is because…” She faltered, realising she couldn’t get any words out. She closed her eyes for a moment before pulling her sleeve up, revealing the bruises. Ned gasped and Peters jaw clenched as he saw the marks again, _I am going to fucking kill him._

Mj continued. “Um so I’m not sure if I can say the whole story again, not because I don’t want to tell you but just because I don’t think I can… can repeat that. But um long story short my mum is back with her shitty ex-boyfriend and um… yeah, he is a real asshole.”

“Shit Mj…”, he was about to say ‘I’m sorry’ before realising that was a stupid thing to say and instead just pulled her into a hug.

As they exited the hug Ned gave her a small smile, “well, whatever you need, I’m here. Also”, Ned grinned, “if you get sick of Peter my house is always open, I’m sure my sister wouldn’t mind you sharing a room.”

Mj snorted and Peter let out a “hey!”.

“Thank Ned. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Okay well, see you two later. Don’t get up to anything while you are staying together, or, if you do, make sure to tell me.” He gave them a stupid smile and Peter instantly picked up some of the video games and grabbed Ned by the arm, leading him to the door. “Okay yeah you can leave now.”

\---

Seven pm. Mj and Peter were outside the Jones apartment. Peter looked over to Mj and gave her hand a small squeeze, “it’s okay. He’s not here, it’s just your apartment.”

 _It’s just my apartment._ She opened the door and stepped inside, and he was right, it was just her apartment. He wasn’t here, it was just her apartment. She let out a breath she didn’t realise she was even holding.

“See”. Peter said.

“Okay let me just grab my things, it won’t take me that long, you can stay there I’ll be ten minutes.”

“Okay, call out if you need any help.”

Mj nodded and walked off into her room. Peter watched her go before leaning himself against the counter and pulling out his phone. Five minutes later he picked up footsteps down the hall but figured it was somebody from a different apartment, until they stopped directly in front of the door and opened the handle.

\---

Mj was staring at her wardrobe, she wasn’t sure how much she should pack, _how long is this going to last?_ She figured that if worse came to worst she could just come back later and pick up some more things, she hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that though. She hoped that she could not be afraid to live in her own fucking home again. She started to grab some t-shirts when she heard voices coming from the living room. Peters and, _shit_.

\---

“Who the fuck are you?”

It was him; Peter knew it was him because who else could it fucking be and he already could feel an ocean of rage drown him. “I’m Peter”, he spat, “Mjs boyfriend”. He could kill him, he could quite literally kill him right then and there, he could, he could do it…

Brian let out a scoff of a laugh. “God so you’re the boyfriend. Was expecting a bit more if I’m totally being honest, but then again it is Michelle.”

Peter clenched his jaw, he could hurt him so fucking bad, nothing was stopping him, he could do it, he wanted to _hurt_ him. “What are you doing here?”

Brian raised an eyebrow “I do live here.”

Peter scowled. “No, you don’t. There’s a difference between living and staying temporarily.”

A flash of anger was sent over Brians face and he walked over towards Peter. He stopped merely a few feet in front of him and pointed a finger at Peters face. “I don’t know what I did to cause you to be a little shit in the first minute you’ve known me, but you should drop it right now.” He said it as a clear threat, but Peter didn’t flinch, which only irked Brian more.

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked again, his tone still uncharacteristically venomous.

“I left my wallet here if you must know. Didn’t realise I was going to be greeted by an asshole teenager the moment I walked in the door.”

“Okay well then get it and leave.”

Another flash of anger came of Brians face and he stepped even closer to Peter, “listen here you little shit - ”

“Brian!” Mj cut off his threat as she entered the room. “Leave him alone”.

He turned to face Mj and let out a small scoff as he noticed the bag in her hands. “Where are you going?”

“Doesn’t matter. Come on Peter.”

Peter gave Brian a look and it took him all of his willpower to not punch his stupid fucking face, but he pushed himself off the bench and walked over to Mj.

“Now hang on you didn’t answer my question.” He had raised his voice now and Mj tightened her grip on the bag she was holding, she didn’t stop, and she didn’t look at him, just kept making her way to the door. Until her path was suddenly halted as he grabbed her wrist.

Yet just as suddenly as he grabbed her, he let go. He let go with a yell and Mj turned to see him holding the hand against his jaw. He looked over to Peter, Mj completely gone from his mind. “You little shit!”. Peters hand was in a fist.

Peter immediately grabbed Mjs hand that wasn’t holding the bag and pulled her over to the door and outside the apartment before Brian regained his shock, he kept walking and he didn’t stop until he reached the elevator at the end of the hallway and the doors slid closed. Then he let go of Mjs hand and fell against the back wall. “…I’m sorry.”, he whispered, not making eye contact with her.

Mj took a moment to respond, the quick succession of events still processing. “It’s okay”.

“No it’s not”.

“Peter –.”

“I just… it was like an instinct”. Peter’s words were starting to fall on top of each other, hardly stopping to take a breath. “I was trying so hard not to do anything the entire time he was there, because he was right _there_ and all I could think about was what he did to you and how I could so easily…” he faulted before continuing. “Then you were leaving, we were leaving, but then he grabbed you and I just, it just… I’m sorry.” With a groan he slid down the wall so that he was now crouching at the bottom of the elevator and dropped his head behind his arms. He sat there for a moment before he felt Mjs body against his as she placed herself down next to him.

“Well, there is nothing we can do about it now is there?”.

She heard a mumbled ‘no’ from behind Peters hands before he lifted his head up, “but I fucked it up.”

Mj let out a sigh “yeah, yeah maybe you did.” She turned to look at him, “but it felt good to punch him didn’t it?”

Peter let out a small laugh and Mj placed her hand on his knee “it’s okay.”

He gave a soft a smile before he scowled “are we even moving?”

“I don’t think you actually pressed the button.” 


End file.
